Milwaukee police recover assault rifle after shooting

Two people shot, suspect arrested

A day after Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, calling for a ban on assault weapons, Milwaukee police recovered a military-style assault rifle from a suspect's vehicle at 25th and Melvina streets.

It all started about five blocks away, where a crowd of about 10 people were gathered at 28th Street and Atkinson Avenue.

Police said the suspect drove up, got out of the car, approached the group with an assault rifle and opened fire, hitting a man and a woman, wounding them both.

The man was injured more seriously, but there is no word on their conditions.

Police said the suspect returned to the area of 25th and Melvina streets, and got out of the vehicle. He recognized police officers and ran off on foot.

A few blocks away police caught him with help of police dog who bit the suspect in the arm.

Police arrested the 48-year-old man, who they said has a long criminal history.

Flynn had officers bring out the weapon they recovered to prove the point he tried to make in Washington.

"This is not a theoretical issue. This neighborhood has to live with too much violence, and one of the reasons is because criminals gain access to high-capacity, high-quality firearms, including assault weapons. It is a danger to the entire community, and this community is dangerous because of that," Flynn said. "Officers have to exercise great courage to confront these challenges, but every day, people who live here have to live with this slow motion mass murder that these weapons bring to the streets of urban America."

Later Thursday, Flynn appeared as a guest on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360.

He addressed the need for universal background checks prior to buying a firearm. He compared it to the inconveniencing of all air travelers in an effort to weeding out "bad guys."

"We made a societal-wide commitment and we have inconvenienced the lives of millions of travelers in the laudible social compact that we were going to protect ourselves from being victims of mass murder," said Flynn. "Why on earth can't we generate that same will when it comes to military style assault weapons and high capacity magazines?"

Flynn went on to say that banning assault weapons would not infringe on 2nd Amendment rights.

"Maybe we can inconvenience ourselves a little bit and limit accessibility to this particular weapon. You still have your shotgun, you still have your pistol, you have your hunting rifle, you have your semi-automatic handgun, you still have your six shooter, you have your Windchester and on and on and on. That's your 2nd amendment right. Every constitutional right is subject to rational regulation," said Flynn.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tuesday that a proposed agreement between world powers and Iran was "a bad deal" that would not stop Tehran from getting nuclear weapons -- but would rather pave its way to getting lots of them and lea...